Defying Gravity
A few days ago, I was rudely awakened around 11am by a deafeningly loud "VOOOSHCRASHBANG!"
I opened my eyes, slowly looked around, and everything seemed normal (well, as normal as things can seem at 11am). WTF?
Then came another one. "VOOOSHCRASHBANG!"
At that point, I was beginning to freak out. As I lay in bed, wondering what to do, this thought was literally going through my mind: OMG, we're at WAR! Tel Aviv is under attack! I think a plane just crashed into the building on my right, and then another one crashed into the building on my left! Now - whomever the enemy is this time - I hope they aren't going to crash into MY building! Because I really, REALLY don't feel like getting out of bed this early.
What do I do? Do I get out of bed to look out the window and check if World War III has actually broken out, or do I just assume this is a bad dream and try to sleep through all the noise? I stay in bed, of course. It took me a few moments to come to my senses. Oh right, Independence Day is in a couple of days. There's probably going to be something-or-other with planes going on, and now they're rehearsing - and they're using MY tax dollar to wake me up before noon. Goddammit.
The next morning, the planes were "rehearsing" again, at the exact same painfully early time of day. Being woken up two mornings in a row, I decided that whatever this little event was, I was going to boycott it. I mean, planes? Planes are boring. A long-lost childhood memory slipped into mind... When my brother and I were very young (in upstate New York), my parents used to drive us to the Albany airport on some weekends, just to stand there outside the fence - for what always felt like hours - and watch the little planes take off. Jonathan, who was two or three years old at the time, found this endlessly fascinating and was always excited to go - and my parents always seemed equally entertained, for some strange reason. For me, the whole experience was as tedious as going to the dentist. Do we HAVE TO go watch the planes AGAIN?! But... but... planes are BORING! (Maybe I was mentally preparing for my trip to Australia.)
Anyway, to make a long story short, when the planes woke me up on the morning of Independence Day, I was at least expecting it. So I decided - goddammit, if my tax dollar is paying for an air show, then I am freaking getting out of bed and stepping out on the freaking balcony to watch the freaking planes.
I ended up feeling glad that I did make that huge effort to watch the air show, because it actually turned out to be kind of cool.
Kind of.
Okay, okay, it was cool.
This last one was the bastard that kept waking me up. Seriously, you wouldn't believe how much noise it makes for such a small plane. VOOSHCRASHBANG! When it flips over, it is so narrow that it almost looks like a flying piece of paper.
A few more photos here.
(On a side note - I love how I keep saying that I never wake up before noon, and yet no one ever seems to actually believe me.)
I'm not entirely sure how the two are related - but the night before Independence Day, I was randomly browsing around LucioBubacco.com, when I came across this video. It's just a short clip, but notice what he is doing - he gently swings the drippy molten glass, and it actually bends up towards him, forming a perfect curve. No adjustments necessary. Murano magic or what?
It's a funny clip - judging by his shirt, the ring on his finger and the fact that someone in the background is saying "groovy!", it looks like it may have been shot in the seventies... but then again, I don't think they had that kind of music back then. Weird. Yes, I admit, I watched the clip repeatedly... errrr... several times, even though I saw the whole thing in person just a month ago. (Has it been a whole month? How could that be?)
So, after the air show had quieted down, all I think was: Hey, if those big noisy hunks of metal can flip around the sky so effortlessly, and the Maestro can turn glass into a perfect curve with just a subtle twitch of the wrist, then I can... I can... somehow twist that into a creative excuse for the really weird beads I'm about to make! Yeah! Gravity's got nothing on me.
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These three will be up on eBay tomorrow, along with a few others.
In the meantime, there are some rather nice (and slightly more sane) beads patiently waiting there. I've come to the sad conclusion that I can't start my auctions at $0.99 anymore - at least not for a while - so this could be your chance to get a cool bead for a really good price!
As for today - well, today I had to set the gravity-weirdness thing aside, because I was having a Pati Walton attack. This has been happening more and more frequently ever since I got back from Murano. A Pati Walton attack is a good thing, obviously - it's what I've been calling those rare days (or nights) when I suddenly find myself armed with endless patience and motivation to pull miles and miles of complex cane. I can't tell you how much I envy Pati's ability to just do that on a regular basis, and with such perfection (makes me wonder if perhaps 'Pati' stands for 'patience'). Today's attack was more extreme than ever before, so you can expect to see lots of twisties (complex ones!) on my beads in the near future. LOTS.
Have a great weekend! See ya soon.
That's pretty groovy AND psychadelic (my best impression of that time)! It never ceases to amaze me at how they (meaning everyone but me) make it look so easy like a monkey could do it (no offense to the monkey). As for the airshow, I would have jumped up right away, such patience Sarah (ha)! I was in the Navy and saw many airshows with the blue angels and they always took my breath away, and gave me a stiff neck, but oh well, I loved watching how they could get so incredibly close to one another. In a way Lucio and the pilots have something in common - PRECISION!!! As far as cane, ugh!!! I took a Kim Fields class and it was all i could do to stay seated, i like free spirited classes!!! take care, oh, any news on Murano or have you put it on the backburner for now????
steph
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cool beads, or small glass objects!
please take hotos of he canes before using them
and the noisy one looks like an F-15 (remember the TV ad with the two old ladies?)
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The Airplane photos are super cool.
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I used to work on the 12th floor at the textile building opposite the dolphinarium (when I was a corporate victim). when the planes practiced for independance day, they would do it outside our window, literally, there was a moment when the plane would actually look like it was standing still in mid air, very creepy and weird. very much like that Arnold Schwarzeneger movie (he plays this undercover spy)....anyway, I love air shows, they leave me in awe.
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Glad you enjoyed the air show, after all the distress their rehearsals caused you. Nice pics you got there.
I like your strange new beads. I can understand why you wouldn't want to let them go for under $40 or whatever, but *pout* I rather enjoyed the illusion of being "high bidder" for a couple of days until the people with money show up...
Anyway, I hope this new pricing policy works out for you.
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